Chapter 119 The Cursed Family Across Two Generations
Li Qian, the only princess of the Great Wei, was, in Li Jin's words, a free spirit.
He was inept at all the arts, including music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and had virtually no talent in poetry, lyrics, or prose. Yet, every year during the imperial hunt, he consistently came in second place.
First place: Li Jin; Second place: Li Qian.
In order to win first place, he even gave Li Jin a laxative and pointed out a wrong path.
She doesn't seem like a princess of a great nation at all, deep down.
She crouched down, her face grave, and looked at the motionless boy lying on the ground in full view of everyone, clicking her tongue repeatedly: "This is poison."
Seeing that she was interested, Li Jin quickly reached out and tugged at her shoulder: "Don't talk nonsense, let's go to the back."
But she shrugged, glanced at Li Jin, and said with utter disdain, "Never mind that, this is important business."
As the crowd grew larger, someone in the crowd asked, "How on earth did he die?!"
"His lips were purplish-black, his nails were black, his fingertips were bluish-purple, and his face was ferocious, which perfectly matched the appearance of someone poisoned."
As soon as she finished speaking, the crowd began to stir.
Li Jin grabbed her by the back of her neck and forcibly lifted her up, lowering his voice to say, "Are you just trying to stir up trouble? How are you going to clean up this mess in front of so many people?"
To everyone's surprise, the girl grinned and said, "Isn't that because you two are here?"
Throughout the entire ordeal, Jin Shu remained silent, her gaze fixed on the victim's face as if she were in a world of her own. She raised her arm and fiddled with her eagle-claw-shaped fingers.
Generally speaking, after a person dies, their muscles enter a state of extreme relaxation, also known as muscle relaxation.
This is because the cessation of nerve activity after death leads to the loss of muscle tone, resulting in the relaxation and softening of all muscles throughout the body.
The most important, and the very first, symptom is the loss of facial expressions.
The deceased will first experience dilated pupils, then gradually their eyes will open slightly, their mouth will open slightly, their skin will lose elasticity, and their joints will become easier to bend, allowing for passive movement.
But this body was different. Whether Jin Shu lifted his arm or touched his fingers and gently manipulated his joints, it was very stiff and could not bend smoothly.
In other words, at the moment of death, the muscles throughout the body undergo a tonic contraction, leading to the relatively rare phenomenon of postmortem spasm.
"Oh dear, isn't that Aunt Wang's nephew?!" Suddenly, two elderly women carrying baskets selling incense, half-covering their mouths and frowning, said from the crowd, "This is the third person to die in Aunt Wang's family in the past few years..."
Li Jin paused, then loosened his grip on Li Qian's collar.
He stepped forward, took out the sign of the Six Doors from his pocket, and flashed it: "Gentlemen, please tell us more about Aunt Wang's family and this boy."
The black wooden plaque is carved with an exquisite black dragon pattern, with gold inlaid dragon eyes, and the three characters "Six Doors" written in seal script.
The two older women hesitated for a moment, glancing hesitantly at the boy on the ground, before giving a dry laugh: "This is someone else's business, and it's not very convenient for everyone to be here in public..."
Li Jin smiled and nodded, putting away the black card: "Please don't leave for now."
He glanced at the baskets in their hands: "The Six Doors will offer three times the price for all this incense today, we'll take it all."
When Feng Chao arrived, the victim's body had already been moved to an empty monk's quarters.
"Today, there are so many worshippers coming to the temple to offer sacrifices and pray for blessings that the abbot and elders of Xiangji Temple are all busy," Feng Chao sighed.
“It’s alright.” Li Jin glanced at Jin Shu, who was focused on the victim’s body in the inner room, raised his hands to block Li Qian from leaving the room.
He slammed the door shut and asked the two women selling incense, "May I ask who this Aunt Wang you mentioned is?"
"It's about five miles from here, Wang Guixiang from Tangxia Village," one of them said. "Oh dear, her family is really in a terrible state. A couple of years ago, I think it was sometime, her mother was cooking a meal at home with firewood, and before she could even eat, she suddenly passed away."
"Suddenly not working?" Li Jin asked.
"Yes, he suddenly stopped. By the time the doctor arrived, he was already stiff." The old woman shook her head. "We only heard about it from others afterward. They said he passed away very quickly, lying on the ground, twitching, and then he died."
Li Jin frowned slightly, pursed her lips, and seemed to be deep in thought.
After a long pause, he said again, "You just said that, including this boy, this is the third one?"
"Yes, that's the third one." The old woman frowned, looking very distressed. "Wang Guixiang's mother died more than half a year ago. One day, her father went up the mountain to chop firewood. The people who were with him saw it with their own eyes. While he was chopping, he suddenly collapsed to the ground. He convulsed for a long time, and then he passed away in a flash."
At this point, the two old women who sell incense sighed repeatedly: "Oh dear, their family is like they're cursed. Now, Wang Guixiang's nephew has also died. It's really bad luck."
The victim lying on the bed was not Wang Guixiang's son, but her eldest nephew who had been living in her house all along.
Since her parents passed away, Wang Guixiang has taken their place as the caregiver for her eldest nephew.
"Regarding their family's situation, they even consulted a shaman and an old Taoist priest, and spent a lot of money to have peace for two years before this happened again."
As Li Jin listened, he would occasionally glance back at Jin Shu inside the room to check on her condition.
Through the window, the sight of that bent-over figure made him even more certain of one thing.
These three cases are probably not a coincidence.
In that instant of turning around, Li Qian waved her fan and said to the two old women in a serious tone, "Don't worry, ladies. The Six Doors never believe in ghosts and demons. We will definitely give the dead a fair chance."
Before he could finish speaking, Feng Chao pulled him aside and lowered his voice, saying, "Your Highness, Ancestor, please don't say anything more."
He raised his hand, dabbed the sweat from his forehead with his shirt, took out some silver, bought the incense for the two old women, and had someone send them away.
"You can't just say things like that, my little ancestor." Feng Chao's features were almost contorted. "Investigating a case requires evidence and a complete chain of events. If you link these three cases together like this, what if they're not related? How is His Highness supposed to wrap things up later?"
But Li Qian didn't seem to care, looking at Feng Chao's timid appearance with considerable surprise: "Isn't this clearly a series of poisonings? How could they not be related?"
Before she could finish speaking, Li Jin snatched the folding fan from her hand and started waving it himself: "Because there is no evidence."
"How could that be? Isn't that what's lying in there..."
"You said poisoning, I ask you, what kind of poison?" Li Jin narrowed his eyes, glancing at her face.
She paused for a moment, then pointed to Jin Shu's figure inside: "Then, isn't this what Mr. Jin should do?"
"Alright, then let me ask you again, how did the poison enter the body?" Li Jin smiled slightly. "It's not going to be Mr. Jin's problem again, is it?"
Li Qian glared at him resentfully: "How else could it enter the body? By ingesting it, of course!"
Just then, Jin Shu opened the door to the monks' quarters, glanced at the crowd in front of her, and shook her head: "It wasn't eaten."
She turned around and said, "If you eat it, you might not die."
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